Enterprises: Cybercrime costs us dearly

Chief information officers see cybercrime as a greater threat than physical crime, according to an IBM survey of manufacturing, financial, health care and retail enterprises.

Fifty-seven percent of the 600 U.S. businesses surveyed said they are losing more money through cybercrime--by way of lost income, the loss of current and potential customers, and decreased employee productivity--than from conventional crime.

Three quarters of American IT executives surveyed said some of the threat to their corporate security came from inside their own organizations, while 84 percent believed that criminal hacker groups were increasingly replacing lone hackers as the perpetrators of cybercrime.

Businesses from 16 countries outside the United States, including the United Kingdom, were also surveyed, with similar results. Fifty-eight percent of chief information officers across international businesses surveyed said cybercrime was costing them more than physical crime.

Only 53 percent of the international respondents thought they had adequate safeguards in place to combat organized cybercrime--though U.S. respondents were more bullish, with 83 percent saying they were well-prepared.

Seventy-three percent of the 600 American CIOs surveyed had responded to the threat of cybercrime by upgrading their antivirus software, while 69 percent had upgraded their firewall. Two-thirds of them were implementing intrusion detection or prevention technologies, while 53 percent were implementing patch management systems on their networks.

IT executives in the finance industry were more concerned about cybercrime than their counterparts in other industries, the survey found.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

[marileev]

What About the SMBs?

The IBM study cited that it contacted 2,401 international businesses in 16 countries, but didn't state the company sizes of the CIO's interviewed.

Intellectual Property vulnerabilities are also present for the Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) too. Represent 99.7 % of all U.S. employer firms.

I would argue that IP theft and leaks are often more important for SMBs as they:

* Employ half of all private sector employees.
* Pay 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
* Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade. -- from US Small Business Administration - <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.sba.gov/advo" target="_newWindow">http://www.sba.gov/advo</a>

Meta data leaks can even reveal information in documents companies create.

--Marilee Veniegas
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.essentialsecurity.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.essentialsecurity.com</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.iwantmyess.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.iwantmyess.com</a>

[heystoopid]

Oh well, we pay far more than you realise!

Oh well, we have more to fear and lose from cybercriminals, than George Jnr &#38; Condy's new domino play toy she called "The Ring Of Fire" at a recent press conference downunder , when visiting the "Commonwealth Games" in Melbourne, Australia.

For when all said done, to compensate the corporations for fraud and criminal losses, the man in the street is billed extra charges of between 5 to 10% on top, so if even losses amount to a mere 2% gross, they still make a profit! Thus they have minimal incentive to improve cybersecurity, when they can tap the cash cow.

The pradagim shift will only occur when that generous source of income is vapourised in the coming pre ordained new world depression(all events move in specific cycles!)

Alas, we the people ultimately pay the double hidden costs, be it crime or other at all times!(taxes to pay for police,jails and courts and then pay for the losses and theft again!)